Posts Tagged With: father

Nothing gives me greater joy than this, to hear that my children are walking in the truth. (v.4)

Third John is addressed from the “Elder” again to a man named “Gaius” in an unnamed church. Gaius represents a contingent in this church, unlike the power-monger Diotrephes, who look to John as their teacher and spiritual father. As he approaches the end of this life, John wants more than anything to know that his “children” are being faithful to all he has taught them and all he has worked for.

As a high school teacher of Bible, I have been known from time to time to call my students my “kids.” They kind of are. I spend more time with them than my own! And by the end of any year, I really end up caring a great deal about my students. They are funny and I love the laughs. They are thoughtful and kind, and one positive affirmation of what we do in class can keep me going for months. I love to see them struggle with an abstract philosophical or theological idea until they understand it and can apply it to their own lives. But my greatest joy is when we meet up a few years after graduation and it is clear they are “walking in the truth.” That makes the long hours, endless grading, hard conferences, and discipling disappointments all worth it in the end.

When I was a young teenager I use to groan with embarrassment at my father’s corny, dry jokes. Now I have the same sense of humor. I used to role my eyes when my father would try to kid around with little kids at church. Now I do the same. I open my mouth now when I talk to my sons and I hear my father speaking. I get that same poof in my hair when it gets long, and I wait too long to get a haircut, just like he did when I was young.

Genetics win out. I am my father’s son.

So, too, the recipients of John’s letter. They too are children of their Father:

Look at the remarkable love the father has given us — that we should be called God’s children! That indeed is what you are. (3:1)

But just like I wasn’t very similar to my father at thirteen — in fact I wanted to be totally different — these Christians may, in fact, be God’s children but they are still struggling to mature into that identity:

Beloved ones, we are now, already, God’s children; it hasn’t yet been revealed what we are going to be. We know that when he is revealed we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (3:2)

With God there are some things that are already true, but they are not yet fully true. Some spiritual realities take time to come into being. Some take a total recreation that will only come at the great New Creation. But this we can rest assured in: genetics win out. Those who are truly fathered by God, those who are truly God’s children, they will become like the father:

Everyone who is fathered by God does not go on sinning, because God’s offspring remain in him; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been fathered by God. (3:9)

Now, is the time for John’s recipients (and for us) to truly be the children of God we already are. Make it a reality. Put it into action. The ultimate spiritual change will happen through spiritual power alone. However, spirituality is not just an ethereal concept for the spiritual mind; it is intended to be lived out bodily in the flesh.

Children, let us not love in word, or in speech, but in deed and in truth. (3:18)

As he did in Ephesians, at the tail end of chapter 3 and the beginning of chapter 4, Paul ends this letter with a reminder that new life in Christ also affects our everyday relationships. In the middle of that section — technically called a “household code” — Paul says this:

Whatever you do, give it your very best. (3:23)

Good relationships take our very best. Husbands and wives can’t expect to have a good relationship if there is little effort put into their marriage. Parenting is too challenging to think we can find success with only our leftovers. Tired, distracted fathers find it too easy to “provoke their children to anger” (3:21). The workplace can easily become tyranny if the boss isn’t trying to give her employees the best, to their benefit and to the mission of the organization.

But how is that possible? We don’t always want to give our best. Quite frankly, there are many situations where the people in our life don’t deserve our best. Paul knows this and his answer comes in the very next phrase:

Give it your very best, as if you were working for the master and not for human beings. (3:23b)

We give our best out of devotion to God, not because other people deserve it.

That’s grace. It isn’t just some concept we pull out when we want to talk about the conceptual matter of how God saves our soul. Grace is also the very practical, unmerited blessings we give the people in our life in the nitty gritty of day-to-day life.

In the first part of Ephesians 5 before Paul gets to the household code of conduct (5:21ff), Paul gives seven characteristics of God we would do well to imitate if we are going to be God’s children, growing in His image. See if you can find them in chapter 5 while you read. For variety, my son put these seven traits into a word cloud.

How is it possible for fallen people to become like our magnificent Father?